What would you do if you were the 12-year-old new ace pitcher of a very
small town baseball team, and you and your teammates went on in one
magical year to represent your far western Oklahoma panhandle roots at
the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and you
were much too embarrassed beyond mere words to see your own mother cheer
you on in the bleachers as you take the big stage hundreds of miles
away?
This is Sooner's situation, and his story is Going to Williamsport, as
he experiences his mom suffering through acute paranoid psychosis during
the early years of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in the
Eisenhower administration. Without the option to "just put her away"
anymore, the only child Sooner sees his own embarrassment and severe
contempt for a Semper Fi father who will not deny his marriage vows, nor
his unbelievable love for his own son.
Going to Williamsport matters more than anything to Sooner, but
definitely not at the expense of seeing "her" in those stands. In his
own words, he takes as much as he possibly can, and then makes
incredibly clear in the clearest of places that he alone, with his
Cimarron Coyotes team is Going to Williamsport, without Dad and
certainly without Mom.
